Abel Kavanagh & Amaru Durand Mitre - Laberinto Verde

A gift from the Pacha Mama, the coca leaf has sparked more debate at this time of important geopolitical shifts in South America.
We set out to look at this plant from a new perspective, hoping to decry the established link between the sacred leaf and the illegal drug derived from it: cocaine.
We travel along the nerves of the leaf, moving gradually from the traditional to the industrial world, from Bolivia to Peru, from yesterday to today on a journey that reveals the vital importance of the coca leaf to people across these two countries.

“Laberinto Verde” trailer from Abel Kavanagh on Vimeo.

Best Documentary

Daniel Lucceshi & Alex Ramseyer-Bache – We Are Poets

WE ARE POETS intimately follows six young poets over the course of one very special year, as they are chosen to represent the UK at Brave New Voices, the most prestigious poetry slam competition in the USA.  Cinematic, honest and deeply personal, WE ARE POETS is a testament to the power of creativity, community and the dynamism of young people.

http://www.wearepoets.co.uk/

Best Animation

Eamonn O’Neill – I’m Fine Thanks

I’M FINE THANKS – trailer from eamonn o neill on Vimeo.

Best Short

Al Early – Doyle

http://www.annvillefilms.ie/

Europe 2020 Competition

Winner: Dan Dalton – 2020 and Beyond

http://youtu.be/JOVRvda7UOs

Runner Up: Jordan Ballantine (Neeru Productions) – Europe 2020

http://youtu.be/kaS_X1gsTz8

We’ll be uploading the finalists over the next couple of days so keep watching this space…

Trailer for the Vice Guide to Belfast here:

THE REBELS OF LIBYA,
The first time I went to Libya, in 2010, I was arrested just two days into my trip. Filming a documentary for VICE, I was detained for shooting where the authorities thought I shouldn’t, and thus began endless rounds of questions, emphatic yelling, and head-shaking incredulity at my claims of innocence—and, of course, the requisite implications that I was a spy. When I was finally released, I swore I would never return to the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (official name). But that promise was quickly broken, and I found myself back in the country almost exactly a year later, in the midst of a chaotic and violent revolution.

Very rarely is one given the chance to live history, to experience revolution firsthand in all its ugly glory. And it is ugly. Sporadic, disordered communications; crumbling and damaged infrastructure that inhibits movement; intermittent electricity; infrequent meals; and the thumping bass of faraway artillery and the treble of nearby machine-gun fire ensures dialed-up adrenaline. It is, at its best, organized chaos and, at its worst, anarchic chaos. But what a wonderful chaos it is. Watching the push for freedom against one of recent history’s most tyrannical dictators has to be one of the most inspiring moments of my life.

THE VICE GUIDE TO CONGO
The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world and thanks to an insanely complicated mix of politics, armed conflict, and corruption… it’s also one of the most under-reported. It also happens to be home to a nondescript black rock known as Coltan… a vital ingredient in the production of nearly every cell phone and computer on the planet. Without Coltan, our technology-driven lives would come to a screeching halt, and Congo has 80% of the world’s supply. Since the mid nineteen-nineties, armed groups have used these minerals to fund a series of fantastically complicated and horrifically violent wars.

Vice founder Suroosh Alvi travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo and makes one of the most grueling treks of his life to see first-hand where this so-called “conflict mineral” comes from and to meet some of the rebels involved in the seemingly never-ending conflict in Eastern Congo.

THE VICE GUIDE TO BELFAST.
There was a time when the conflict in Northern Ireland suffused popular culture, with its easily explicable cast of Catholics and Protestants and its deceptively simple narrative of joining the Republic of Ireland versus remaining under the protective wing of Great Britain. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) loomed large — an irregular force giving the Brits hell, a pre-Al Qaeda byword for terrorism.

But in 1998, after a furious but low-intensity war that claimed almost 3,700 victims over 30 years, the two sides suddenly called it a draw. Political representatives of paramilitary groups and mainstream political parties hammered out the Good Friday Agreement, outlining a cessation of major sectarian violence, the decommissioning of weapons, and the release of prisoners affiliated with groups like the IRA and its unionist analogue, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). There would be no land swaps, no significant concessions made to those demanding a united Ireland, just a tenuous and long-overdue “peace process.” It marked, as an Irish journalist once told me, the effective surrender of the IRA.

But in the unionist communities of east Belfast and nationalist enclaves of west Belfast — working-class areas where militant sectarianism is one of few birthrights — there is little sense of peace and much talk of being “sold out by the tea-drinking politicians.” And every year on July 12, when unionists of the Orange Order celebrate the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James by marching through Belfast, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Troubles never ended.

In the lead up to this year’s twelfth parade, tensions were running higher than any period in recent memory. It was only a few months since a 25-year-old Catholic police officer was murdered by dissident republicans (to dissuade others from joining the force) and just weeks after altercations between nationalists and unionists in east Belfast ended in riots and multiple shootings, including a cameraman. What better time for VICE to explore Belfast and marinate in the divisive hate?

A gift from the Pacha Mama, the coca leaf has sparked more debate at this time of important geopolitical shifts in South America. We set out to look at this plant from a new perspective, hoping to decry the established link between the sacred leaf and the illegal drug derived from it : cocaine.

We travel along the nerves of the leaf, moving gradually from the traditional to the industrial world, from Bolivia to Peru, from yesterday to today on a journey that reveals the vital importance of the coca leaf to people across these two countries.

“Laberinto Verde” trailer from Abel Kavanagh on Vimeo.

Two brothers meet up for the obligatory Christmas Eve pint and find themselves spending that day together. They don’t discuss the big issues. The mysteries of the universe are not uncovered. No great wounds are healed nor sins forgiven. But gradually we learn everything important there is to know about these two men, their pasts and their futures. There are a few jokes and a song or two.

Nobody gets too drunk. But the boys do meet Santy. Briefly. And their Auntie Betty cooks them a fry.

http://filmireland.net/2011/10/17/screenwriter-stephen-walsh-on-where-the-sea-used-to-be/

Where The Sea Used To Be trailer:

“Gearing up to our Alternative Ways of Distribution next week, we’d like to invite all original content creators to start exploring the world of YouTube Partnerships  (read: ways that you can develop an audience and earn revenue from your films & videos on YouTube) and sign up for a Partner Programme in advance.  The YouTube team will be presenting the Programme on Friday, but are encouraging all to sign up now so that they’ll be able to guide you directly through your Channels and show you the best ways of developing them.  Please visit www.youtube.com/partners to sign up or email zofia@support.youtube.com with any questions.  And don’t forget to mention Darklight when applying!”

Following on from a slam poetry performance by Leeds Young Authors (stars of closing film We Are Poets), the Darklight closing party is sizing up to be a kicking night of live MCs The Animators, Diamond Dagger, a special late show with Serengeti, Mark Murphy Choice Cuts plus our very own Mark Flood, best party Dj in town!

UMACK have come on board to curate this event and in keeping with our Strictly Roots theme it’s BYOB and only 10 Euro cover charge, which includes festival membership. Tickets available from www.darklight.ie/festival-2011/buy-tickets

For a taster of what the night will hold take a look at these …

Serengeti, Flutes

Serengeti – “Flutes” from anticon. on Vimeo.

Dimond Dagger, Dirty Road House Dancing

The Animators, How Does It Feel